Joan T. A. Gabel is an American academic administrator who is the president of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

Early life and education

Gabel was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and grew up in Atlanta. At age 16, Gabel entered Haverford College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1988, then worked in employee benefits for two years. She earned a J.D. degree from the

University of Georgia School of Law The University of Georgia School of Law (Georgia Law) is the law school of the University of Georgia, a public research university in Athens, Georgia. It was founded in 1859, making it among the oldest American university law schools in continuous ...

in 1993.

Career

Gabel was briefly an associate attorney in Atlanta and served as editor-in-chief of the ''American Business Law Journal''. She was a professor of legal studies at

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the largest institution of hig ...

from 1996 to 2007, then was a professor of business law and department chair at Florida State University from 2007 to 2010. From 2010 to 2015, Gabel was the dean of the college of business at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

and became the provost of the University of South Carolina in 2015. She was also selected for faculty/staff membership in Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honor Society, while at the University of South Carolina. In 2019, University of Minnesota regents offered Gabel the presidency of the state's university system. As president of the University of Minnesota, Gabel is the first woman to hold that position. Within her first year of being president, she helped guide the university during two major events: the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and the police

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's ...

and subsequent protests. To combat the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, Gabel closed University of Minnesota campuses and shifted instruction to online learning. In response to Floyd's murder, she announced that the university would be reducing collaboration with the Minneapolis Police Department. Gabel joined a lawsuit against the U.S. federal government, fighting a potential rule that would have deported many international students.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabel, Joan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University of South Carolina faculty American women academics Women heads of universities and colleges Presidents of the University of Minnesota Georgia State University faculty Florida State University faculty University of Missouri faculty Haverford College alumni University of Georgia alumni 21st-century American women